New York
October 1, 2026
Irish emigrant women rarely get their fathers written down. Bridget Hannigan’s turned up in a book about her husband’s family: The Downers of America (1900) names him as Patrick Hanighan of Ballybofey. How I’ve weighed it, the Hannigan neighbours around her, and why BanyanDNA comes next.
September 7, 2026
John Francis Hannigan married Anna L. O’Rourke at Marlboro in 1897. The parish register names her parents — and names the two witnesses, who were the groom’s father and the bride’s mother, married to each other. He married his stepsister. Five years later he took her mother to court.
August 19, 2026
Michael Hannigan’s second wife sat in my tree as Julia O’Rourke for years. A clerk’s marriage register in Newburgh, New York ruled maiden and married surnames into separate columns — and it says O’Connell.
